Regarding Telemachus
by karrenia
Summary: Dylan contemplates his former first officer Gaheris Rhade and the stranger Telemachus Rhade, and realizes that the 'connection' does bother him a tad.
1. Default Chapter

Disclaimer: Andromeda is the creation of Gene Roddenberry, Tribune Entertainment and Fireworks Productions and its related creators etc, they do not and will never belong to me and no money is made from this; used only for entertainment purposes. Title inspired by the Harrison Ford 1991 movie "Regarding Henry" "Regarding Telemachus" by Karen

"Some men are stronger at the broken places, and some aren't. I am reminded of those old sayings at infrequent and damn inconvenient times, Dylan muttered to any attendant ghosts who chose to listen to his midnight musings.

There are some things that endure the test of time: love, loyalty, and dedication to a cause. Its not this man feels any nostalgia for the good old days, despite his stated goal of bringing those good old days back.

Maybe the others that made up the crew of the Andromeda believed that Dylan Hunt carries his ghosts around like a solider hiking with a back pack loaded down with everything except the kitchen sink. "I guess they do," Dylan griped, grunting from the effort of moving his still healing arm where a Magog grunt soldier had bitten upper forearm and broken through the skin.

Dylan rubbed the scab and tried to block out the memories. His attention was momentarily distracted by the glowing readout of the digital clock standing at attention on his night stand table informing that it was time for the skeleton watch at 4:00 hours.

There are nights when the scars from his battles overlap themselves, there are times when he stands the night watch and he can swear that at least one ghost that haunts his dreams can be identified.

It's his old second in command, Gaheris Rhade. His best friend, his confidant, and finally his betrayer, on the eve that the original Commonwealth fell. 'Where are you now, old friend?" Dylan mused in the back of his mind. 'The funny thing about ghosts, they only manifest at night, and the harsh light of day dispels them back into the netherworld. I never believed in spectral manifestations of any kind. Gaheris had reasons behind his actions, and I doubt it could be chocked up to his simply being a Nietzchean, no matter how Dylan may have wanted to simplify the matter.

A little mocking voice in the back of his mind reminds him that he's been too blind to read the signs. That same voice tells him that Gaheris had dropped hints right up until the instant he had shown up on the command deck with a force lance in his hand, shot the pilot, and they had fought till the very end. If he had believed in ghosts, spooks or things that went bump in the night, Dylan speculated that in whatever afterlife Nietzcheans believed, Gaheris would probably be laughing at his old friend's night time hangups. "Well, more power to him." Dylan thought and got out of bed.

Dylan dragged his uniform of the back of a chair where he'd laid out and put it on. The simple act of buttoning up the pearl buttons over the black fabric helped drive off some off the more painful memories from the past.

The here and now was all that mattered and how he wished to shape the future should be his top priority.

Fully dressed in his High Guard uniform, Dylan picked up a floppy hard copy and perused the communiqué he had received earlier that evening.

Dylan read the text and thought about how much he had already achieved in his bid to restore the Commonwealth, when a line leapt out of him. He reread several times before the gist finally registered in the foggy parts of his brain.

"Telemachus Rhade' direct descendant of Gaheris Rhade' It couldn't be was Dylan's first reaction. His second was to laugh it off, as some one's s not very good attempt at a practical joke. But then he could count on the fingers of one hand the number of people who knew about Gaheris. So what did it all mean?

"One crisis at a time, "Dylan thought and tossed the floppy onto the floor in a slick wadded up ball. "Priorities, remember, those darn priorities." 


	2. Fragments of Your Life

Disclaimer: Andromeda belongs to Tribune Entertainment and Fireworks Productions, as do all of the characters who appear here or are mentioned; they are not mine. Note: References events from the 2nd season episode "Home Fires, and picks up shortly after where "Regarding Telemachus" left off.

"Fragments of Your Life" by Karen

If one could believe and wish hard enough for something to be true, then weighed all of the evidence both for and against that desire, would that make it true, in point of fact?" truth in point of fact?  
It's something that has crossed the mind of Captain Dylan Hunt on more than several occasions shortly after the arrival of the Andromeda Ascendant arrived on Tarazed, one of the last remaining outposts of the now fallen Common Wealth. 

Dylan is not used to be treated as some sort of iconic figure of legend, but it seems that's exactly what the citizens of Tarazed see them as, and Dylan is not entirely comfortable with that regard, but he figures that he should make the best of it.

The Commonwealth as Captain Dylan Hunt knew it, fell over three hundred years ago, and as and added bonus, Dylan thought, "that's exactly how long to the microsecond, these people have been waiting for me, that's way too uncanny to be the work of sheer coincidence, right?

The population of the planet have kept their existence a closely guarded secret until a man named Jamahl, as something of a consolation prize after a war-game debacle provided the crew of the Andromeda with the slipstream coordinates and directed to them planet.

Apparently, it's location, way off of the major slipstream routes, the planet was never discovered by the galaxy's primary hostile forces, the Magog or the Nitzcheans.

As Dylan sat making polite conversation, eating and drinking fine food and wine he isn't sure if his host is really on the level.

Sure, the initial shock had now worn off, however, this Telemachus Rhade is, despite the uncanny resemblance to his former first officer, Gaheris Rhade, that's where the resemblance iends despite the man's claims to the contrary; he simply cannot be the genetic reincarnation of that same man. Gaheris Rhade was a man and a fellow officer that Dylan trusted with more than just his ship and his crew; his faith and his trust extended as far as his life, and he had even asked Gaheris to stand up for as his best man for his wedding to his finance, Sara Riley. Gaheris betrayed him during the Nietzchean uprising, the led up to the final battle at Witch Head.

Witch Head, Dylan would much prefer that his thoughts did not stray there, for him, both personally and publicly, it's a sort point, like an officer shot in the leg who does not yet know that's he's been killed; it's a phantom pain, one that does not go away entirely.

A few nights ago, alone in the late watches, Dylan remembered that he had sat up, looking at his collections of medals, and realizing that the uncanny resemblance between this Telemachus Rhade and his old second-in-command, Gaheris Rhade, bothered him more than just a tad. It's hard to for whom to move past that, betrayal always did leave a bad taste in his mouth.

Dylan Hunt should have realized by now that some events in the past cannot be changed no matter how much he much wish that they had. He really should have be paying more attention to what is going around him, it's important, because it appears that the good citizens of Tarazed are not entirely on a united front when it came to the issue of signing up with the new charter Commonwealth.

The rumors that he heard and that Beka Valentine and the others had been keeping an eye out for seemed to indicate that a rebellious faction planned to use the planet's stockpile of missiles. 

It was pretty much anyone's guess at this point exactly when, where and at whom those missiles were to be aimed at. A selfish thought crossed his mind, "I hope they're not aimed at my ship.'

"So what's it like for you? Telemachus asked as he came over to where Dylan stood at the railing of the observation deck looking out of the spectacular view of the city complex.

"It's something all right," replied Dylan, not really giving much though to his response, wondering if she be irritated at the interruption of his ruminations and wondering at the same time if he should make an issue of it, then with a shrug, he decided it wasn't worth it after all. 


End file.
